"This is a study of the revival of paternalism in Britain in the 1820s and 1830s. Against the background of an increasingly industrialized and urbanized state, the popularization of liberal laissez-faire principles and the rise of a class-based society, it examines the influence of old world paternalist notions of authority and responsibility on the development of social policy. The Poor Laws, social distress, child labour and factory reform provide a focus for the analysis.

Through a study of parliamentarians' responses to social issues, it demonstrates that the revival was not simply a reactionary response to the new economy. By focusing on the paternal responsibilities of government and parliament, the revivalists sought to accommodate paternalist social thought to the changing social and political climate. In the tradition of protectionism, they looked to the state for solutions to social as well as economic problems.

This represented a fundamental shift in perspective and one that has important implications for understanding the origins of the Victorian collective and modern welfare states."--BOOK JACKET.